Invasion from the Planet of Tarrasques

Invasion from the Planet of Tarrasques is a single-session, over-the-top, gonzo action adventure meant for four to six level 20 characters. The adventure serves as a capstone for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but can be modified for any setting.

What’s more fun than one tarrasque? How about multiple tarrasques stomping across Waterdeep? How about a whole planet full of tarrasques ready to rumble? If that sounds exciting, then Invasion from the Planet of Tarrasques is for you.

Halaster Blackcloak died... but then he came back... with reinforcements...

Adventure Background

Halaster Blackcloak, the Mad Mage of Undermountain, always has a contingency in place. As long as Undermountain remains beneath the city of Waterdeep, Halaster can never truly die within its walls, for the dungeon rebuilds the mage’s body on the rare occasions when adventurers “kill” Halaster.

Halaster realized that if adventurers destroyed all of Undermountain (a nigh impossible feat more difficult than even slaying the mage), he would lose his immortality. To further protect his life, Halaster took some of the rooms and halls of Undermountain and flung them across the multiverse, including other worlds of the Material Plane. With Undermountain spread across existence, the task of permanently killing Halaster is even more difficult.

Unfortunately for the mage, a party adventurers recently killed him in his dungeon beneath the City of Splendors. When Halaster’s body reformed, he found himself in Falx, another world of the Material Plane inhabited entirely by enormous, carnivorous monsters with endless appetites. These scaly bipeds are closely related to the tarrasque, an infamous monstrosity feared across the worlds of the Material Plane. Halaster, now obsessed with punishing the adventurers who killed him, began to hatch a plot. If one tarrasque could level an entire city, what could a planet’s worth of the beings do to Faerûn?

Adventure Overview

This adventure is divided into three chapters.

Chapter 1. In “Giff You a Hand” a platoon of giff arrive in a spacefaring vessel and warn the adventurers about a coming invasion of tarrasques. With the clock ticking, the characters have a chance to prepare for the battle by mustering their allies.

Chapter 2. In “Battle for Waterdeep” the characters face-off with the invading titans, defend Waterdeep, and fight for their lives.

Chapter 3. In “Falx, Ho!” the characters travel through a portal to the planet of Falx to face Halaster and his army of tarrasques atop a stone tower made from pieces of Undermountain.

This product includes...

A PDF of the adventure with art

A printer friendly version of the adventure

Map images that can be used with virtual table tops

This is a DMs Guild Adepts product. The DMs Guild Adept Program was started and is managed by Wizards of the Coast. It brings together some of the best talents creating for the DMs Guild for creative development. DMs Guild Adepts products are identified by the gold ampersand logo.

Leaving a comment rather than a review since I haven't actually run this module.

I haven't played and don't have copies of Waterdeep Dragon Heist or Dungeon of the Mad Mage and bought this assuming that I could still run the adventure regardless, but honestly I don't think I can, at least without either doing a heap of research or making up a lot of stuff. The text assumes a great deal of knowledge about Waterdeep and its defences and inhabitants. For example, I have no idea what the walking statues are or the personality of each ally listed, though I understand you can find each of them fully described in Dragon Heist. Perhaps that was the intent, it just wasn't clear to me when I bought it.

That said, this is a well written, well edited and well structured adventure with interesting concepts and mechanics, so I'd still recommend it for those with a little more knowledge about the setting than me.

James INovember 19, 2018 1:31 pm UTC

CREATOR

Hey Luciella! Thanks for the feedback. Like all Adepts products, this one is meant to support current Wizards of the Coast releases like Dragon Heist and DotMM, which is why this product's first chapter is intertwined with those products. That said, while playtesting it was definitely possible to run the adventure without having run or read those products, but it does require a little work on the part of the DM to either research (a lot of which can be done through Google) or tweaking the story of the adventure while keeping the mechanics the same.

November 10, 2018 10:13 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Is this likely to become AL-legal? I want to finish off my AL HC with this! :)

James INovember 12, 2018 1:16 pm UTC

CREATOR

I don't think this one is likely to become AL legal. It's a little too ridiculous and over-the-top. I will let you know if that changes though!

I haven't ran this adventure yet, but it reads and looks fantastic! The player decisions at the beginning, and the added randomness of the environment during the final battle, means this adventure could be different each time you run it. Well done! [...]

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